Onto the next one.

REAPER IN RED

Chapter 14

"Ruby Rose, wake up this instant!" Came that horrible morning order.

Groaning and rolling over, hiding myself once more in my blankets, I could make out the sound of the scowling heiress. I might have mumbled something about hitting the snooze for five more hours. That seemed reasonable, right? It only seemed to anger my partner that much more, who proceeded to yank on my blanket, letting sunlight batter my eyes into submission.

"Fine. Just know that I hate you."

Weiss snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "Eat your cookie and strawberry filled breakfast and then try to say that again with a straight face."

Well, she got me there.

"I'm still not happy." I grumbled, rolling into a sitting position, letting my feet dangle off the bed. Stretching and letting out a final yawn, I felt my heart constrict in my chest.

The sudden jolt froze me, the yawn catching in my throat as the wave of pressure rolled over me. It took me a second to figure out why. I had extended my magic across the room. Every shadow bathed in both natural and man-made light told a story. The housefly buzzing around inside the garbage can near Yang's bed had four days left to live. Unless somebody got to it first with a fly swatter. There was a couple spiders using the corners of Blake's bookshelf as a home. The eldest, no doubt the mother still had a few months. One had two years. I was surprised to see one was expecting 5 years.

There were fairies using the rafters between the ceiling and the floor above as a nest. None were going to be living longer than ten years. Pretty average all things considered.

"Ruby?"

The blonde-girl had the longest lifespan of the three of them. Ninety nine. With how well she trained and ate, I would expect it to rise by a year or two. The white haired one had too much stress to gain any real benefits from her training and health regimen. That emotion was counter-productive to life. Wait, what?

I felt a finger poking my forehead.

Shaking myself from my stupor, I noticed Weiss -no, not just Weiss, all three of my teammates- staring at me in confusion. I glanced between them. "Do I have something in my hair?"

"You froze, Ruby" Blake said. "You looked paralyzed; eyes wide and body twitching."

I rubbed my back gently underneath my sleep shirt. Okay, that was still good. I could feel my own body heat on my fingers. Nothing was speeding up. Must have just been a weird fluke.

"Just tense. I-I think I might have pulled a muscle or something. Nothing that a few minutes of stretching and exercise won't cure. Right?" I tried to laugh it off, my laughter ringing out as hollow even to my own ears. Not the greatest morning it was.

The three girls seemed to back off and accept my suggestion, unsure of what else it could be. Yang did ask if I needed to go visit the medical wing or see a doctor, but I quickly brushed away that suggestion. It wouldn't do to have anything strange about me discovered. It would all be better once I could sneak out into Vale and find somebody dying. There had to be loads of old people in the big city. Or even a murder or robbery gone wrong. Both suited my needs.

Though the blood was gross to deal with.

"Everyone remember the plan?" Weiss said, hands on hips and looking at us in what I can only guess was her best Professor Goodwitch impersonation.

It was quite good.

"What plan?" Yang asked before I could. This brought out a loud groan from Weiss, who shook her head in dismay.

"Vale? Vytal festival? You all promised to come visit the city with me to check out- I mean, to tour?"

"I remembered Weiss!" I shouted with as much cheer as I could muster.

"No you didn't Ruby, but thanks anyways." Weiss grunted back.

Two hours and forty five minutes later -of which felt like a blink of an eye to me, and fifteen years to Weiss- we all stepped off the Bullhead and into the big city.

And it was just that. It had been... seven months since I was last in Vale? Eight months maybe? I couldn't remember for sure, but it was before Beacon and before the Xiao Longs. That was for sure. Visiting Vale and bumping into Mr. Pleading-For-His-Life and his.. daughter? She creeped me out. -Was probably the best thing that happened to me this decade. I smiled wistfully at the thought.

Vale held large streets with nice wide sidewalks which allowed all four of us to walk side by side -by side by side- if we wanted to. The buildings were tall, much taller than even the headmaster's tower back in Beacon. Many were sort of rectangle shaped, and none had the engravements or precise etchings that were commonplace on the stonework in Beacon. Actually, most of the buildings here weren't made out of stone. They did have nice glass windows though which let me peak inside.

Some windows had fake people wearing cloths, others had sweets and cookies and muffins and pies and -no Ruby, don't just look at the food- and an assortment of other confectaries. Ya, that's what Weiss called them.

There were some buildings which only held desks and people, all busy at work, doing whatever humans did for work. And most people I saw were humans. Well, the human word for humans that didn't include faunus. I guess it made sense that they liked to break things up into subspecies. Zombies and mummies were the same, Will o' Wisps and Life Lights were the same, even Brownies and Aumakua were pretty much the same, if you didn't take into account their demeanours.

Were there subspecies of Reaper as well? That was something to think about. I knew that not all Reapers were the same and some strayed from our purpose, but were they considered different subspecies altogether by humans? Should they be? Did Reapers label them as some other species? And what were their names? Because I don't think Bities or Chompies were correct. Thanks mom. Then again, I still can't believe she first told those things to a fifteen year old Reaper.

I wasn't even aware that my teammates had stopped walking. We were at a port, or dock. There was a difference between the two I was sure, but what that difference was, was still a mystery.

Large ships and small boats lined the harbour front, some taking on new passengers, and others unloading their goods; both of the people and stuff varieties.

My gaze was fixed on boats, marveling on the metal contraptions and how they seemed to float so effortlessly in the water. If I tried to do that, I would sink. Unless I paddled hard enough. Not like sinking did much for me if I hadn't had a soul in a while. But having water fill up your lungs? Even useless unused lungs? Still an unpleasant feeling.

"-so many people and goods to move and organize! The amount of organization required to put together the festival is just simply breathtaking!"

Weiss's cheery voice, broke me from my thoughts and my attention turned back to her and Yang's groaning.

"How could you make something like the Vytal festival sound so boring."

"I like to think that I'm improving your preconceived notions of it being purely a festival."

"But isn't it though? Food, games, fun? It's SO a festival!" Yang blared, arms over her head. "Well, there is the tournament part, but that's just included in the festival-ities! Heh? heh?"

"I don't even think that can be considered a pun, Yang." Blake said with a flick of her ear -bow-.

"Everyone's a critic." Yang mumbled, while I patted her back as gently as I could.

"Hey! Somebody stop him! No good, bloody stow-away!" Shouted someone from the docks.

"I will have you know, I'm a great stowaway!"

All four of our heads turned to the incoming stowaway. A boy faunus. His tail swished around behind him as he ran, using it to help leap onto a street lamp and then throw himself towards our group.

"Ladies," he winked, darting off in another direction.

Weiss was the first to regain her bearings, gesturing wildly at the faunus and shouting for us to "follow after it". I immediately noticed Blake's ear twitch at that statement. But follow we did. At least as best as we could, given that he was swinging around with his tail and moving a lot faster than he really should be, amid the busy streets all preparing for the festival.

Really, I think Weiss was the only one of us in any hurry to catch him. Not to say I wasn't curious why he was a stowaway. But, it was more of a passing curiousity. Did it really matter? No, not at all. He was just some faunus boy.

"Damn! I lost the faunus." Weiss slowed to a stop, breathing hard and snapping her fingers angrily. "That no good, stupid faunus. I hope the police catch him."

"Why are you so desperate to catch him?" Blake said, lips curled in a frown.

"Why else? He's a crook. A scoundrel! You heard what the ship's captain said. That faunus is nothing but a no good stowaway. I bet he's part of the White Fang, just doing what he can to cause as much trouble as possible for us normal people."

"Normal people?" Blake's quiet voice seethed with rage. I felt Yang's hand on my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. A silent plea to try and diffuse the situation.

I wasn't completely sure if I could diffuse it.

Or if I even wanted to.

"Of course." Weiss said in her high-and-mighty voice. The one she loved to use when lecturing me about basic mathematics and other useless things like aura management homework. "Look at them and look at us. We work hard and train hard. We benefit the economy and improve lives. What do the White Fang faunus do? Steal and lie and kill. No better than chimera. Those faunus don't even deserve to be classified as human. Monsters the whole lot of them."

"That's enough Weiss," Yang warned. Blake was silent, her fists clenched tightly, trying to hold back her rage.

Fine by her. I wasn't going to let that stand. Nobody and I mean nobody, gets to say that a human doesn't deserve their humanity.

"Weiss. How can you be so completely and utterly stupid?" I finally said. My heart pounded in my chest, my own body heat making up for the lack of physical heat around me. "You think the White Fang are all monsters? Faunus are all monsters? Well, take a look at yourself in the mirror for once. You, sitting on your high throne, debasing others and saying they lack humanity. Well, good or bad, they are still human. Calling them chimera... I... I..."

I shook with anger. This was too much. Why was I getting so angry? Why were my emotions running so wild? Was it because of Blake? Had I bonded with her so much that I was feeling what she was? What did humans call it? Sympathy? No, empathy?

"After centuries, CENTURIES of abuse and struggle, faunus still try to become 'human' in your eyes. Well, I say they are more human than you are. Degrading someone else for something they have no control over. What if all humans rose up and declared that anyone with white hair were no longer human. What would you do then? Huh Weiss? huh? Do you have nothing to say, other than cruel words?"

"You don't get it, my family-"

"No Weiss. You don't get it." I refused to give her a chance to speak, as I stepped that much closer to her. "Just because a faunus does something bad, it doesn't make them inhuman. Trust me, I know inhuman. Would you say the same thing about any human -bar faunus- who commits a crime? Should we all now lump all of humans into the same boat because some of them are evil? How about those humans who let faunus die in caves all over Atlas. It's really depressing seeing them. They're always looking forward to death. To be away from their captors. Shouldn't those be the real monsters?"

Weiss took a small step back, too stunned for words. Her voice cracked, letting out only a garbled sound.

"I'm sorry," I could barely hear her squeak out, as she turned and fled.

And back to the usual schedule now.

Alucard45 - Rule one of Reaper Club: Never go full Reaper.

Firewyrm2 - I already have a solid plan for the docks. Hopefully you like it.

FN75 - It's like they are soulmates! Hmm... Do Reapers even have souls? I guess this story is now a vampire romance novel. What a twist! (just joking, this's most definitely not a romance at all)

Dragonqueen1993 - Ya, I kinda knew going in that the chapter would be pretty info-dumpy. But at least you guys know that info now and the story can chug along like normal.

Guest - Today IS supposed to be the next update. And here it is.

I got a whole bunch of replies and messages regarding the Reaping vs killing thing brought up in the previous chapter and I can definitely say that it's not a mistake. Just that, there is a very big difference between Reaping a soul and killing. If you pick through mentions of Reaping or killing during Ruby's internal monologues, it does decipher some important things regarding death and a Reaper's role in the process. It'll continue to be discussed throughout the story and later on I will be showing you guys exactly what I mean. But for now, the confusion is deliberate, though maybe more so than I had intended. See you all in two weeks!